Matthew Kelly, Kacen Bayless – The Kansas City Star
The ice storm that struck Kansas City over the weekend created perilous conditions for motorists who were unable or unwilling to heed warnings and stay off the roads.
According to local authorities, first responders across the metro area were dispatched to hundreds of reported vehicular crashes and slide-offs on Saturday and Sunday as ice and sleet menaced the roads.
In Kansas City, 204 wrecks were reported to 911 between 2 p.m. Saturday and 6 a.m. Sunday, police department records show. Of those, 35 involved an injury — the same number of total wrecks reported during that timeframe a week earlier.
Johnson County Emergency Communications reported dispatching 392 fire and EMS calls including 43 vehicular crashes where people were injured. Across the border in Platte County, the sheriff’s office reported receiving 65 calls for wrecks over the weekend, up from seven during the last non-holiday weekend.
Fortunately, most crashes haven’t been as serious as the multi-car pileups and overturned vehicles featured in viral social media posts, said Battalion Chief Michael Hopkins with the Kansas City Fire Department.
“For the most part, while the number of accidents go up, the severity of the accidents from an injury standpoint tend to go down,” Hopkins said. “Typically everyone is driving slower, they’re being more mindful of what they’re doing.”
Response times
Hazardous road conditions can also lead to delayed response times for emergency crews that could usually be counted on to arrive promptly at the scene of a vehicular crash.
“Like everyone else in the city, with the slick roads and the heavy snow and the ice that came on Saturday, it makes it difficult just to get around the city,” Hopkins said. “It will be a slower response. Just like any other vehicle, we have to drive according to the conditions.”
The fire department uses chains to help vehicles gain traction on side streets and going up hills. It also services three extra EMS pickup trucks with four-wheel drive staffed by an EMT and a paramedic.
Capt. Jacob Becchina, a spokesperson with the Kansas City Police Department, said the agency could not immediately provide a breakdown of response times to emergency calls placed during the winter storm.
The only local law enforcement agency that provided information about response times over the weekend was the Clay County Sheriff’s Office, which reported receiving only three calls for vehicular wrecks on Saturday and none on Sunday.
“As our lead dispatcher notes, most activity was deputy-initiated when they saw crashed/stuck vehicles,” said Sarah Boyd, a spokesperson for the sheriff’s office.
Emergency crews arrived on the scene of the two non-injury car wrecks 13 and 23 minutes, respectively, after they were first reported. After an injury accident was reported at 4:02 p.m. Saturday, it took an EMS vehicle until 4:09 to make it to the scene, records show.
In Kansas City, efforts to communicate non-emergency issues through the city’s 311 call center were inhibited by the timing of the blizzard.
“There is no non-emergency 311 phone line on the weekends/after hours. Emergency Reports are accepted only,” said city spokesperson Sherae Honeycutt.
The city did not immediately respond to a request for the number of emergency reports filed on Saturday and Sunday.
©2025 The Kansas City Star. Visit kansascity.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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